54 The Escape

It was hard to tell how long we waited because the constant thoughts of danger waiting outside dulled our sense of time. If I had to guess, we probably waited here for about five minutes already. The fire had not spread to where we were yet, but the entire ceiling was now covered in smoke. To prevent ourselves from accidentally breathing it in, we all stayed crouched down, even though the smoke was over a half meter above our heads.

"I guess now is a good time to sneak out…"

Because the mansion's windows were taller than us, the smoke was now obstructing half of the view from it. Thus, I figured that those standing outside would have trouble discerning movements indoors, and we would likely be able to exit the mansion without them knowing. I moved towards the front door and pulled it open slowly.

"Watch out!"

Lica pounced on me, knocking me onto the ground. Immediately after, a large boulder crashed through the door and flew above us. It crashed into the wall behind us, blowing a large hole through and leaving behind a large cloud of dust that soon merged into the dark smoke. Had Lica not shoved me, I would most likely have had most of my bones broken, or even died.

"What was that?"

I sat up and looked towards the large hole that used to be the front door. In the distance was a large dust cloud with the silhouette of someone in the middle of it. I crawled a little bit closer to the door to get a better look at what was inside the dust cloud, keeping myself as close to the floor as possible so as to avoid being detected.

As the dust subsided, the silhouette was revealed to be that of the last soldier accompanying lieutenant general Tuha earlier. He was unarmed and simply standing still about ten meters away from the mansion in front of a large hole in the ground, looking in the direction of where I was. As soon as our eyes met, the soldier crouched down and punched the ground. He picked up a large boulder from where his fist hit the ground, then hurled it towards me.

Luckily, I managed to roll to the left in time to avoid the incoming boulder. Amber and Lica also tugged me as I was rolling so that I would get to safety faster.

Since the soldier knew where exactly I was located now, I figured he would soon rush in to fight me. Given the distance of ten meters, it wouldn't take long for him to reach me, so I prepared myself to cast my fireball spell since the lack of time made it impossible to ready up more advanced magic.

Fifteen seconds passed by, but there was no sign of the soldier running in to fight me. Amber and Lica also told me that they could not even hear the sound of footsteps, either. Confused, I slowly moved my head towards the front door to take a peek outside. The soldier was still standing in the same spot, staring at the front door. I quickly moved my head away from the door and hid myself behind the wall again in case the soldier would throw another boulder towards where my face was.

"I'm not stupid enough to blindly charge in!"

As though he knew too well what I was thinking, the soldier shouted that as I went into hiding, then continued his proclamation,

"I'm just going to keep you holed up in there until you succumb to the smoke!"

That would explain why he was only hurling boulders towards me, as making the exits dangerous was certainly a great way to keep me inside the burning building. I reckon it was still possible for me to escape through the window, but it would be too easy to spot me, and opening the window would also take time. If I instead crashed myself through the window, then I would be defenseless outdoors, and a flying boulder would likely end my life before I could regain my footing to dodge that.

"Seems like I'll have to fight my way through…"

Considering how the soldier was standing still and waiting for me to make a move, attacking him would be relatively easy since I would only need to aim at the same spot. He was unarmed, so I probably didn't need to worry about him reflecting my attacks back like when I dueled against Yequa. Speaking of whom, I wonder what happened to him after he got taken away earlier in the day.

"Fireball!"

My magic had already been prepared earlier, so I got up and stood under the front door, then shot a barrage of fireballs towards the soldier. Even though half a dozen fast moving fireballs were flying his way, the soldier continued to stand still. He didn't appear to be worried at all, and in fact did not even bother blinking. The fireballs all hit the soldier, but did not seem to have caused any injuries to him at all. The fireballs were all seemingly as harmless as the puffs of smoke they turned into upon contact.

"Those insignificant attacks aren't going to work on me!"

The soldier quickly slammed his fist into the ground again right after shouting that, then picked up a boulder. I leaped to the side and hit the floor just in time before he could hurl it at me. Seeing how the flying boulders could easily break the wall they crashed into, I couldn't help but wonder why he didn't just throw the boulders at the wall I was hiding behind. Maybe he didn't want to create more possible exits for me in case he missed, or maybe he didn't want to add more ventilation for the smoke.

"If the fireballs won't work, then maybe a large pillar of fire will…"

I mumbled that to myself as I prepared to cast stronger magic. After completing the chant and channeling mana for my spell, I stood up and stood under the door again.

"Flame Pillar!"

I felt somewhat bothered by how the soldier was completely unfazed by the sight of the large magic circle forming above him. As a large pillar of fire came down from the magic circle, the soldier only crossed his arms and lowered his head so that his face would be covered by the arms.

The pillar crashed down on the soldier, pushing him down with great force and singeing him at the same time, yet he was still standing upright after taking the full brunt of the attack. Neither his armor nor short hair appeared to be singed, which made me feel as though I was fighting that giant bull in Suva town all over again.

"They don't call me a Tank for nothing!"

I felt worried since there was not a single bit of exhaustion or weariness in his voice. I turned over to look at Amber and Lica.

"What's a 'Tank' anyways?"

The two girls shrugged their shoulders in response to my question.

"In any case, can you two do anything?"

"My magic doesn't reach that far."

"I can't use magic!"

"Sigh…"

A couple minutes later, I had already fired another half dozen barrages of fireballs and dodged the same number of boulders hurled towards the door. Apart from the area surrounding the soldier which had now turned into a large crater with a small standing platform in the middle, there were no changes otherwise to the outside. The soldier was still in tip-top condition, with no visible wounds other than a few minor scratches at where my magic hit him. On the other hand, I was beginning to feel tired, and was starting to have trouble breathing as the thick smoke was now at the same level as the top of my head.

"Where is the general, anyways? If that soldier is outside, then the general and lieutenant general should also be out there somewhere, right?"

"Hm… I'll go check!"

"Huh? Wait, it's dangerous!"

I was going to ask if the smoke got to Lica's head, but that was impossible since she was shorter than me. Without a care in the world, she went to the front door and took a look outside, and even stuck her head outside for a while. Oddly enough, it didn't seem like the soldier outside was going to throw anything towards her.

"Coward! Stop making your wives scout for you!"

Why do people keep thinking Amber and Lica are my wives, anyways?

"I really don't want to take the lives of innocent civilians, so why don't you just surrender already?"

"I would if my life wasn't on the line!"

Based on what he said, it seemed like he wasn't going to attack the girls at all. After she finished looking around, Lica came back to where I was to inform me of the situation outside.

"The two are battling in the sky."

"So that's why the general isn't able to help us, huh."

I took a deep breath and thought about how to get out of this situation, then turned to the girls after thinking for a couple seconds.

"Well… It doesn't look like he's going to throw a boulder at you two, so you two should head outside."

"What about you?"

"Afterwards, pounce on him and distract him for me. I just need a moment to run outside and hide myself. It's probably dark enough outside that the he won't be able to spot me if I were to jump into the bushes, right?"

"…"

There wasn't anything else I could do from inside this burning mansion, so the two girls soon consented to my idea. Amber and Lica both walked to the front door and stepped outside. The soldier ignored the two girls as they branched in two different directions. A while later, peeking through the front entrance, I saw that Amber and Lica were now a couple meters away from the soldier, directly left and right of him. The soldier continued staring at me, so it seemed unlikely that he would take notice when the two girls pounce on him later.

"Now!"

As Amber gave the signal, the two girls immediately leaped forward towards the soldier, while I stood up and prepared to bolt outside.

"What is this?"

With a large swing of his fist, the soldier immediately sent Amber and Lica flying away. The two hit the ground about five meters away, and were now seemingly unconscious. The soldier then pounded the ground again and picked up a boulder. Before he could throw the boulder again, I jumped forward to hit the floor once more.

"Cheap tricks aren't going to help you!"

Considering how my plan to have Amber and Lica distract the soldier so that I could escape had just instantly failed, I looked around to see if there were any secret passages or tools and weapons I could make use of. There weren't any suspicious patches on the carpet, so I quickly ruled out the possibility of a hidden trap door. Nobody would put one so close to the main entrance, anyways.

Thus, my only option now was to see if there was anything I could make use of to help with escaping. Near me right now were the wooden debris of what used to be the front door, a potted plant, chairs, a rolled up carpet, a jug of cooking oil, and some decorative swords mounted on the wall.

Wait a minute…

A jug of cooking oil?

I didn't quite know why the soldier couldn't have just prepared a boulder to throw at me in advance during this whole confrontation, but this fact was something I could use to my advantage.

I cast a self buffing spell on me to boost my own strength, then prepared another spell and crept over to where the jug of oil was. After picking up, I got up and ran towards the front door with it.

"Take this… ack! Cough! Cough!"

I had completely forgotten that the thick smoke was now at around my neck level, so I ended up breathing in some of it as I hurled towards the soldier. Ignoring the fact that I had just completely ruined my moment to look cool, the soldier remained unfazed at how there was now something completely different from the fireballs flying towards him. With another swing of his fist, he punched the jug as it reached his location, causing it to burst instantly.

"Huh?"

The cooking oil inside splashed all over his body and the crater surrounding him. Shortly after, I followed up by activating the spell I previously prepared.

"Flame Pillar!"

Just like a few minutes prior, the soldier crossed his arms and shielded his face as a large column of fire dropped down from above.

"What? This is…!"

Unlike last time, however, the soldier and the ground around him was now burning because of the oil that splashed on just now. Perhaps because he never expected something like this to happen, the soldier kept shaking his own body, but the fire wouldn't stop. He then dropped to the ground and rolled around, but the repeated ground smashing resulted in him rolling into his self-created pit. The fact that the pit was also on fire didn't help the soldier in any way at all.

Now that I had some time to spare, I calmly recited my next spell and channeled a decent amount of my remaining mana. Then, stepping outside, I took a deep breath of the fresher air, pointed my staff towards the pit of fire, and activated my magic.

"Fire Tornado!"

Strong hot gusts began blowing around the large pit, and soon the circling winds ignited into a magnificent vortex that rose five meters high.

The guards at the mansion's gate were busy keeping passersby from getting close to the site of the fire, so I figured this tornado was short enough to not get noticed by people on the streets since it was only half as tall as the mansion itself. Because there were no guards around, nobody was able to help the soldier get out of the tornado. The general and lieutenant general were fighting in the sky somewhere, so the soldier could not ask for Tuha to help, either.

Had the soldier not been deprived of breathable air and panicking due to that fact, he probably could have easily took a big leap and forced himself out of the tornado or perhaps just have repeatedly smashed the ground so that the dust cloud could weaken the fire, but he took neither of those actions.

Maybe he needed to breathe in a lot of fresh air in order to make use of his monstrous strength or something, but needless to say the soldier passed out after rolling around inside the tornado for a while. Just to be sure he would remain knocked out, I kept the tornado spinning for another ten seconds before ending the spell.

Inside the pit was now a motionless body covered in dying embers. Whether or not the soldier will keep his life is something I wouldn't know, but I felt relieved that I finally managed to get out of the burning building. Everything I did tonight had made me use up three quarters of my mana, so I felt terribly fatigued right now. I badly wanted to lie down and rest, but there were still things that needed to be done.

I looked up at the sky to see if I could spot general Denato and lieutenant general Tuha anywhere. The oil lamps illuminating the streets weren't very effective at lighting up the sky, so I figured the two would have to be fighting somewhere close to where the mansion was located since the burning building was the only source of light strong enough to allow aerial battles. After looking around for a while, I eventually spotted two moving silhouettes about 15 meters above me and 20 meters away.

At this distance, it was impossible to determine which silhouette was the general and which was the lieutenant general since the two of them had similar builds, so all I could do was spectate. From what I observed, one figure was able to move extremely fast but had seemingly weak attacks, while the other was able to dish out strong blows to make up for his lack of movement speed.

I was tempted to think that the fast moving one was the general because of how fast his maneuvers were during the fight against the dragon some time ago, but it was hard to be completely certain without seeing their weapons up close.

"Maybe if I launch a fireball…"

It didn't seem like the two would move too far away from where they currently were, so I figured that shooting a fireball somewhere in between the two might make it clear who was who. I knew that the general was proficient with a greataxe, so I just hoped that the lieutenant wasn't using a similar weapon.

"Fireball!"

A relatively harmless fireball flew towards the faster moving silhouette at a moderate speed. It was quickly chopped away and gave off a bright explosion, momentarily lighting up the sky around it as a result. Judging by the glare of their weapons, my guess seemed to be correct, as the fast moving silhouette was holding something that resembled a greataxe, while the other was holding a bludgeon and shield.

Knowing now which silhouette belonged to general Denato, I thought about what I could do to help him win this fight. The two were too high up for my magic to hit an intended target accurately, after all.

Suddenly, lieutenant general Tuha looked away from general Denato and turned towards me instead. He lunged at me at full speed and looked like he was about to maul me with his bludgeon.

"You ruined my plan!"

He angrily shouted so at me just a brief moment before getting pushed slightly off course by general Denato and ended up slamming his large club into the ground less than a meter away from me instead. Had it not been for the general's extreme agility, I probably wouldn't have survived.

Lieutenant general Tuha quickly got up and glared at me with bloodshot rage in his eyes.

"If I can't get what I want, I'll just kill you before going down!"

I quickly ran back towards the burning building, about fifteen meters away. General Denato continued attacking the lieutenant general in order to prevent him from chasing after me, but his attacks seemed to be relatively weak compared to what Tuha could withstand, and was thus only able to slow down Tuha's advance.

I considered hiding somewhere inside the building and breaking out of a window to escape from lieutenant general Tuha, but the fire had now spread over to the hallway right in front of the main door, and the smoke was now so thick that I would have to drop to lower than my waist level in order to traverse through the place. I stopped right in front of the door and looked back at the approaching enemy, who had now slowly advanced to just slightly over ten meters away from me. Judging by his rate of movement, I probably had about half a minute left before he could get to me. Of course, I could just run along the mansion's walls to buy some time if he got too close, but I felt that trying to end things now was probably better than delaying things.

I pointed my staff backwards towards the burning building and channeled all of my remaining mana while chanting the verses of my next spell. Because of complete mana exhaustion, I could barely keep myself standing as I was now draining my own energy in order to use magic.

"Just a bit more…"

It seemed that I had just enough mana to do what I wanted to do, as my staff's tip gave off a brilliant glow at the same time my knees gave up. I did my best to keep my staff pointed towards the burning building after collapsing on the ground while using my free hand to tug my robe so that it covered as much of my head as possible.

"Any last words?"

Lieutenant general Tuha was now only a meter or so away from me.

"Yes, two words."

"…?"

"Explosive discharge."

As though the general had expected this to happen, he feinted a swing of his greataxe and kicked lieutenant general Tuha as he was distracted by the false attack, causing him to move too far forward, trip over me, and fall into the building.

It was a good thing I was an archmage who specialized in fire-type spells, as I could easily make use of the raging flames to catalyze the activation of magic that would otherwise be impossible to use due to its huge mana consumption. Under the influence of my magic, the fire inside the building rapidly became even hotter, to the point where one would feel like their body would melt at any moment. A bright white flash came from the fire, and an ear piercing boom rang throughout the mansion's grounds as the whole building exploded from the overly extreme expansion of hot air.

If it wasn't for my fireproof robe shielding most of my body, I probably would have melted to death due to the explosion. I wasn't sure if the general was pulling me away or not, but I was without a doubt being blasted far away while losing my consciousness. Amber and Lica were already lying unconscious much farther away from the building than I was, so those two will probably still be alive later. Probably.

Well, I hope we won't suffer serious injuries when we all regain consciousness…